In the Wide TDM scheme used in the Memory Controller, multiple packets are stored within one data word. Although packet length is contained within the packet data, the Memory Controller does not have enough information to derive packet boundaries. Packet data is striped to multiple Memory Controllers, so no single Memory Controller has enough information to determine the actual length. Storing additional length or packet boundary information for every packet would be quite costly. The Memory Controller can only switch dequeuing priorities at known packet boundaries, so it does need to store some length or packet boundary information.